just curious, have you ladies and gents ever notice when you rehydrate your yeast.......... the yeasty taste seems to be less noticeable ? or am i trippin' ? im about to make a honey nut brown, and i am wondering if it's worth re hydrating it? also being that it's a 2.5 gallon batch, should i use the whole pack? i use Safale S04 thanks -Lee

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Use the whole pack and re-hydrate. Opened yeast will draw water out of the air & die trying to hydrate.

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I rehydrate about 99.876% OF the time. I also must say that I use dry yeast about 95.473% of the time. I'm just such a fan of the simplicity and reliability of dry yeast...not to mention the time and cost involved in using liquid...but this isn't a debate about liquid vs dry.....

My guess is that you're getting a more viable and ready to work yeast when you hydrate...and thus the yeast finishes faster, and does a cleaner job than a dry pitch...thus leaving you with less yeast flavor sooner.

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